


Mr. Golds Classroom.

by Thedoctorsblogger



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher, F/M, Slow Burn, Teacher-Student Relationship, loke so slow that youll have kids or grandkids by the time anythigng happens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-18 19:24:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13106907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thedoctorsblogger/pseuds/Thedoctorsblogger
Summary: Belle is best friends with the son of the toughest teacher at storybrooke high, who she just happens to have a crush on





	1. The Call

Belle, Emma, and Neal walked up the many staircases scattered around their high school on the way to Mr. Gold's classroom. Every day once the last bell rang the three friends would hang out in Neal's dad's room until they Emma and Belle’s parents picked them up from school. Belle's dad was always pretty late and Emma's parents picked her up pretty much on time every day. 

Mr. Gold was considered to be the meanest teacher at Storybrooke High. He was one of those teachers that was very strict and didn't take ANY excuses whatsoever. He treated his beginning of the year Syllabus as a contract and as everybody’s favorite thing to say about Gold stated: Nobody Breaks a deal with Mr. Gold. He was often called the monster of Storybrooke High That is by anyone who didn't know him outside of school anyway. Even the Teachers considered him a monster, but being that Belle and Emma were Neal's best friends they knew better than that. 

As soon as the last kid had left his classroom at the end of the day he would loosen up. His usually stiff and abrupt nature would relax, he smiled a lot and even joked around with the kids. That was one thing that belle loved about hanging out with him. He was always quick with a quip. Granted, he was never as loose as belle would have liked to see. He always wore a sharp clean cut suit that people never saw him without. Belle suspected that he only wore it as armor. Some days when the three came into his classroom Gold would be lounging in his chair grading homework assignments. Sometimes, mostly on test days, he would be hunched over a larger stack of papers with a scowl on his face. That was another thing that people didn't like about Mr. Gold, They thought that his Tests were insanely hard and were too scared of him to ask for help in his class from the man himself. Belle was never one of those people. In Fact, that's how she had met Neal.

She had been having some trouble in Mr. Gold's class about a month into the first year that she had him as a teacher for World History. She couldn't for the life of her figure out where she was going wrong so she went straight to the source to ask for help. She was on her way to the classroom when a small timid-looking curly haired had joined her on the stairs. He said his name was Neal Cassidy- his mother's maiden name- and that he was on the way to his father's Classroom. All she had told him was that she was on the way to see a teacher about a test. They talked and exchange numbers so they could text later and see if they had any classes in common. Belle was utterly amazed when the boy turned in the direction of the door that she was heading to and went inside. As soon as Belle saw the look that Mr. Gold had on his face when he saw his son, she was no longer scared of the man himself. He asked for his help and he was more than happy to oblige. With a little help from him, Belle knew exactly what he looked for in the work that he handed out and quickly became the best student in his class. That was when she started to hang out in his classroom as well. 

After Belle had finished his course and she still hung out in his classroom after school she started helping him grade the papers from his freshman class. Her father was always late and Mr. Gold said that he refused to leave such a lovely young lady at school alone so as long as she helped him do this one thing she would be paying him back plenty.  
She enjoyed helping him as well. Belle would never admit it to Neal but something about his dad always gave her butterflies in her stomach when he spoke or looked at her. So when she helped to grade papers she came up with little questions to ask Mr. Gold about what he looked for just so she could talk to him and have an excuse to stare at the man she had had a crush on for the past two and a half years. 

This time she was looking at a question on a paper that was over Roman mythology. The question was ‘Retell the story of Romulus and Remus in your own words.' The answer was supposed to have been along the lines of ‘Romulus and Remus were a set of Roman twins whose mother was a vestal virgin and their father was the god, Mars. The current king thought that they were a threat to his rule. He ordered that they are killed and they were left to die along the bank of the Tiber River to die. They were then picked up by a she-wolf and raised with the wolves until they were adopted by a local shepherd. They defeated the king that wanted to kill them and they wanted to start a city of their own. They had a disagreement about who to name the city after. Romulus killed Remus and named the city after himself: Rome.' All this student had put on the test was that they were twins that were raised by wolves and founded Rome. 

Belle asked Mr. Gold about the answer. He looked at her over his glasses and then at the paper. He took a moment before he answered

"Miss French, you do want to be a teacher, don't you?" She nodded and tried not to be too pleased that he had remembered that from what she had said once to his son after school a long time ago. He continued. "Then why don't you decide what they get?" he turned back to the paper he was reading before Belle had asked him the question. She decided to give him three out of the possible ten available and leave a note that said, ‘needs more detail.'

The three sat in a comfortable silence for a while longer, Belle and Gold grading and Neal was doing something on his phone until belles phone rang. It was her dad's number but she had no idea why he would be calling right then. She went to stand in the far corner of the room so as not to disturb the other two and answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Is this Isabelle French, Daughter of Moe French?"


	2. The Wait

“Hi, Is this Isabelle French, Daughter of Moe French?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"My name is Nurse Boyd. I'm sorry but there's been an accident. Can you come down to Storybrooke general hospital?"

Belle felt numb. She spoke in barely a whisper that she'd be there soon and she dropped the phone as soon as the nurse hung up. The two men had realized there was something as soon as Belle had to ask who was on the phone. Mr. Gold was there first urging her back to his desk and into his own chair. He bent down to one knee so he could look her in the eyes. 

"Belle?" she didn't answer. "Belle, what's wrong?" Still no answer. "Sweetheart, I can't help you if I don't know what's going on. You need to tell me what happened."

When she responded her voice was still so quiet Gold had to strain his ears so he could hear her. She wasn't looking at him either. "It's my dad, there was an accident." She looked at Gold as if she had just realized that he was kneeling right in front of her. She looked straight into his eyes then said a bit louder than last time, "will you give me a ride to the Hospital?"

He gave her an encouraging look. "Of course I will sweetheart, let's just get our stuff together first." Neil had been standing right next to Belle’s elbow the entire time holding one of her hands. Gold turned to his son. "Neil, will you grab Belle’s stuff real quick?"

"Of course Papa whatever she needs." He went to the seat that Belle was previously sat and picked up Belles pencil case and the notebook she was writing on and put them in her bag while his father grabbed all of the papers that they were grading and shoved them into his briefcase. 

Belle was shaking, though he couldn't tell if it was from being cold or being scared. Gold put his suit jacket around her shoulders. She wrapped it tight around her as they walked out the doors of the school to where they had parked Golds Cadillac that morning. Neil put his arm around belles shoulder to comfort her. He half expected that she would blow it off and was surprised when she wrapped her arms around his stomach and tucked her head into his arm trusting him to guide her to the car. He put her into the back seat and clambered in after her. His father had the engine started before the two were even buckled properly. 

Traffic in Storybrooke was always light for there being only one main road in the tiny town. Gold was never more appreciative of this fact than at that moment. They reached Storybrooke's tiny hospital in less than five minutes and rushed in to find out what happened. They reached the main desk in the front of the lobby to find out where they needed to be. Belle still had her head on Neil's shoulder so Gold took the lead in the inurement. 

"Excuse me; we got a call about this young lady's father just a few minutes ago." He pointed at Belle. 

The nurse looked at him boredly and asked, "Name?"

"Mr. French. Uh, Moe French." Gold felt a bit uncomfortable referring to Belle's father by his first name at all. Along with his sharp appearance, he prided himself on his sharp manners and always referred to a person by Mr. or Miss. or Mrs. depending on the person. The only people he called by name were well, his family and his son's friends and even then it depended on the environment.

The nurse took a while before she spoke; searching what Gold assumed was a hospital database of some sort. The looked back at the page and then back at the three people standing in front of her. The look on her face was a poorly constructed mask to cover what Gold guessed was a look of concern. She took them aside into a private room. She still looked at them and said, "Stay right here, the doctor will be in soon to discuss what happened with Mr. French." 

The three sat in silence for around a half hour. In this time Gold had called his business partner to pick up Neil and take the boy, much to his protest, to their home. As much as Belle trusted Neil and as much time they spent together, Gold just didn't think that this was something that Belle wanted him to see or go through it with her. By the time she finally spoke she had migrated from Neil's boney shoulder after he left to the softer firmer one of his dad. He had his arm perched awkwardly, to say the least around her shoulders and he was rubbing her arm for comfort. When she spoke it was a plea to Gold to speak.

"Mr. Gold, please say something." She paused. "I need something to take my mind off of the horrible scenarios that could have happened."

He thought for a moment. "What would you like to talk about?"

She sighed. "I don't know... anything."

"Well, how about you get to ask me almost anything about well, almost anything? How does that sound?"

It was her turn to think for a moment. "Anything? Like anything about you personally? Not just history or other teacher stuff?"

"Well, almost anything, that's what I said anyway but there are a few subjects that are off limits and if you ask something that's in that area I'll tell you."

She snorted. "Wow, I feel pretty special right now. I'm not going to lie."

"Well, dearie, I'd say that since you trust me to be here with you for this then I can answer a few questions."

Belle took a few moments before she said what she'd been meaning to say since after Neil had left. "Thank you by the way." He raised a brow. "For being here with me. And for sending Neil home earlier. I mean he is my best friend but I just don't think I could deal with another kid my age at this moment." He smiled and nodded to say that he understood. It was at that moment that Belle knew exactly what question she wanted to ask Gold. She looked at him and told him. "OK, I have my first question."

He nodded again. "OK go on ahead."

"Why do people never use your first name?"

He chuckled. "Ahh easy, that would be because they don't know it. It's not something that I normally share."

She raised an eyebrow. "Why not? Will you tell me?" He shook his head "Seriously, it can't be that bad."

"Oh, I assure you, Miss. French, it is." She gave him a puppy dog look and mouthed the word, please. "How will I be sure that you won't tell my enemies or my students for that matter? Names have power and I sure as hell don't want to give them an advantage."

She looked at him with a disbelieving stare. "I promise I won't tell, and I don't break promises." She paused. "Besides Mr. Gold, I've been helping you grade papers for how long? If I wanted to help the kids in the freshman class then I would have already." He looked confused. "You get so absorbed in your papers sometimes, I have to call your name three or four times before you even hear me. I could have taken a picture of one of your tests at any moment and made a ton of money."

He gave a scandalized look. "Miss French, you would never"

"Exactly Mr. Gold, I would never. So, therefore, you can trust me."

He squinted down at her, still not sure if he would tell her or not. "Would you swear it on your firstborn child?" She giggled and nodded. "Fine, you can have three guesses. But that is it, and once those three are out no more, and you can’t ask again.”

Belle giggled again. Who do you think you are? Rumplestiltskin?” This time it was his turn to chuckle. Then she started her guesses. “Well, does it start with a letter before or after M in the alphabet?”

“Miss French, I do believe that that is cheating”

Nope. You said I had three guesses. You did not say that I couldn’t ask questions. Now answer. Pretty please?” She batted her eyelashes at him. 

He squinted at her “It starts with R but you won’t guess it in a mil-“

The door opened before gold could finish. Any look of distracted happiness disappeared into panic and concern as soon as the doctor stepped through the opened door. Belle shot like a bullet from her chair and Gold Followed. The doctor looked from Belle to Gold and started talking. 

"Miss French?" he asked looking back at Belle and shaking her hand.

"Yes, that's me." 

"Hi, I'm Dr. Whale; I've been working with your father." He looked at Gold. "And who is this?"

Gold shook his hand and said, "I'm Mr. Gold, I'm Belle's history teacher."

"Ah, yes well, I'm sorry Mr. Gold but I'm going to have to ask you to leave the room while I fill in Miss French about her father's con-"

"No Belle cut him off. "He is here for my support; I mean I’d like him to stay in here with me." 

"Oh, ok." Whale paused and then continued "First thing is first I guess Miss French, How much have you been told about your father's condition?"

"Nothing, I've been sitting here worried sick." 

Whale gave a concerned look and directed Belle to sit down. He sat down in a chair adjacent to her and faced her. “Miss. French, I am afraid that I must inform you that your father had suffered a heart attack. At the moment we don’t know what caused it and at this point we may not know.” He paused and looked for the right words as not to freak the young girl out. “Because we don’t know the cause it is very likely that it will happen again, so we will be keeping him for the the next couple of days for observation so we can catch it in time.” 

Gold nodded and spoke in Belles place. He could feel that she was frozen. “When can we see him.”

“I can take you to him now but you should know that he is a little disoriented. It’s common for patients not to remember what happened to them.” They nodded and whale took the two back to Moe’s room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there it is. School sucks so either updates will be quick due to stress writing or they’ll be slow because I’m kinda busy only time can tell. Im certainly hoping fir the former of the two options
> 
> Thoughts, prompts, just comments in general would be appreciated.


	3. The Visit

The walk seemed long for Belle who was following the doctor from a distance. Gold was leading her with a hand on her back. Belle hesitated for a second at the door to her father’s room. A quick look to see that Gold wasn’t going to go anywhere was all she needed to cross the threshold. She all but ran to her father’s bedside and gave him a hug.  
“Papa! I was so worried.” Moe hugged the girl tighter. 

“It’s alright my girl. I’m going to be fine. Dr. Wale has me well looked after. I don’t think anything would get past Nurse Astrid here.” 

Gold stood in the corner as to not intrude but moe looked at him. “Mr. Gold.” 

Gold gave a half nod. “Mr. French.” 

Mod looked towards his daughter with concern. “It’s late, have you eaten yet?” Belle shook her head and more continued. “Then why doesn’t Nurse Astrid take you down to the hospital canteen to get something to eat.” Belle didn’t look too thrilled to have left her father but she nodded and did as her father had told. 

As soon as belle left the room Moe deflated. Gold saw him look more like he would have expected a man to look after a heart attack. 

Moe spoke first. “Sit sit.” Gold sat in the chair in the corner and Moe continued” Thank you Gold- for bringing her here.” Gold knew there was more coming so he just nodded and stayed quiet. “Listen, Gold, I know that Belle and your son Neal are good friends and I know that Belle looks up to you and she respects you. I understand if you reject my next request.” Gold gave a half nod. He thought he knew where this was going. Moe continued talking. “As you know it’s been just me Belle for quite a while and if I’m going to have to stay here she’s going to need a place to stay.” Moe paused and Gold definitely knew where this was going. “What I’m trying to say is could Belle stay with you?” Moe finally stopped and looked at Gold who was now standing by the foot of Moe’s bed. 

“Of course Mr. French, Whatever you should need until you get out.” 

Moe nodded but he knew there was still something that he and Gold needed to talk about. “That’s not all Gold.” He paused. “I’m not as clueless as some people think. I know there is a chance that this will happen again and if it does, there is a chance that I will not make it. And I need to know that my daughter is taken care of. I’m all she has. So, if I were to die she would need someone to take her in. She would need a home. Could you do that Gold?” 

Gold knew the answer to Moe’s question without a doubt. As little time as Gold had spent with the girl, he had become very fond of her and he knew that both she and Neal had thought of each other as siblings. “Of course” Gold replied. “Anything to help Belle” 

Moe nodded with acceptance as Belle walked in with a sandwich. Moe gave a smile. ”There’s my girl. Come here.” Moe patted the end of his bed for Belle to sit. Gold left the room to give them some privacy. Belle ate as her father talked to her. ”My girl, it looks like I’m going to be in here for a few days. I have arranged with Mr. Gold- since you are good friends with young Neal- for you to stay at their house while I’m in here. That is if it’s ok with you.” 

Belle swallowed and nodded her head “Of course papa but you’ll be out soon right?” 

Moe paused before he continued. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be in here but I promise My girl, I’ll do my best to get out of here and get things back to normal as fast as I can. Does that sound ok my girl?” 

“Ok, papa.” She hugged him tightly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this took so long and this chapter is so short. I have no excuse other than the inspiration fairy has been cruel to me. As always THanks for reading, please Kudos and Comment and any prompts are appreciated and I'll see what I can do with them.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry that time got away from me. I had no idea just how long I had gone without updating. Let's just say that I have had a long dry spell and hopefully it's better now.

“So, If you could have that extra room together for tonight that would be great… Yes, Thanks, Mrs. Potts.” Gold hung up his phone as Nurse Astrid walked up to him. He was fiddling with his phone waiting for time to pass

“Excuse me Mr. Gold, but I’m afraid that visiting hours are at an end and you and Miss French will have to leave.” 

Gold nodded. “Alright, would you mind if I told them”

“Sure, Mr. Gold.”

Gold knocked softly on the door before he entered the room. 

“Hey.” He said softly. He saw that Belle was curled up asleep on her father’s shoulder. Moe nodded to say that he knew what Gold was there for. 

Gently, Moe shook belles shoulder to wake her. “Duckling, It’s time to wake up.” She stirred. “It’s time to go sweetheart. I’ll see you later right?” Belle sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes before excusing herself to use the restroom. 

“Gold, you’re an attorney, correct?” Moe spoke quickly as soon as the door was shut and Belle was out of earshot. “Could you meet me here to help me with a few documents?”

“Of course Mr. French. Whatever you need.”

Belle entered the room and the room again and the conversation was over as abruptly as it had begun. 

Quick goodbyes were exchanged as well as promises to see each other tomorrow before Belle and Gold Left. 

The car ride to the Gold residence was a quiet one. They stopped by Belle’s house on the way for Belle to grab the essentials for her to stay with them for as long as Moe needed her to. Now that Moe had asked him to come by his hospital room, he didn’t know what to say to belle. He didn’t want to rush her into talking about anything that she didn’t want to talk about before she was ready for it either. It wasn’t until they were at the house that she said anything. 

Walking up to the door Belle meekly spoke: “You never did tell me what your name was, Mr. Gold?”  
Gold tried to suppress a smile as he slid his key into the lock on his front door, taking the return to their previous conversation as a good sign. “Rum. You can call me Rum.” he did smile as he opened the door. 

A concerned Neal took Belle on a tour of the house before she could say anything else.   
Belle was amazed by the sheer size of the house. She thought for sure that eight of the measly apartments that she lived in could fit inside of this one house. 

Upon asking just how they could have a house this big, she was informed that Mr. Gold was also a licensed attorney and he owned some real estate around town, but his partner, Dove, took care of the business aspect for the most part so that Mr. Gold could teach. She was also informed that Mr. Gold was younger than she thought he was as well. 

She couldn’t remember how it came up, but as it turns out, Neal had been the result of a whirlwind relationship that Gold had when he was no more than Belles age. Neal’s mother disappeared after she found out and Gold never knew until a woman showed up on his doorstep telling him that this girlfriend that he had in girlfriend was dead and she had a kid, which was his. So there he was, 22 years old, in law school –which meant that he was up to his eyes in debt- with a 6-year-old kid that he had no idea existed until an hour before, and he had no idea what to do about it. If it weren’t for his pseudo-mother, Mrs. Potts- who was always there whether he asked her to be or not- he surely wouldn’t have survived. It had just been the two, well, three of them ever since.   
She would never tell Neal, but all of this information made his father even more attractive to her. He was obviously a very smart man   
and he was a kind man too, kind enough to keep and love his son with little to no proof that the boy was even his.

There was no trepidation in her voice when Belle told Neal that she would have to meet Mrs. Potts for herself. He smiled and dragged her to the kitchen. There were wonderful smells coming from it and Belle’s mouth watered just thinking about what could possibly be being made in there. 

Mrs. Potts was a short, plump old woman. Upon being introduced to the newest guest of her domain, Mrs. Potts hugged Belle tight to her bosom and told the girl that everything was going to be alright. Evidently, Mrs. Potts was a mother to everyone that she met, it brought tears to Belle's eyes, she missed having her mother around so much. 

The tour of the house was over and was replaced with dinner. The food that Mrs. Potts had made was delicious and all three other people were so amazing but Belle was glad when she was able to retire to her room that night.

**Author's Note:**

> so this is my first multi-chapter fan fiction it's probably really bad but here it is please comment if you like it or if you want to see more or even if you want to give prompts and stuff.


End file.
